food crisis – Religion & Ethics NewsWeeklyhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics
An examination of religion's role and the ethical dimensions behind top news headlines.Wed, 03 Jan 2018 21:42:57 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.1 Syrian Refugees in Turkeyhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2015/03/13/december-19-2014-turkeys-syrian-refugees/24819/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2015/03/13/december-19-2014-turkeys-syrian-refugees/24819/#disqus_threadFri, 13 Mar 2015 15:45:22 +0000http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/?p=24819"I put myself into their place. I would be in the same situation. I would be the one who escaped from the war, from this conflict, and they came here and you know Turkish hospitality," says Savas Metin, general secretary of the Turkish nongovernmental aid organization called Kimse Yok Mu. "They came to our country, and it is our duty to help them." More →

]]>Almost half the population of Syria has been displaced by the violent conflict between the government, rebels, and ISIS. Nearly 1.6 million Syrians have fled to Turkey, and they rely on support for their basic needs from the government and civilian volunteers, many of them motivated by their Muslim faith. Kimse Yok Mu is one Turkish nongovernmental aid organization that sponsors a refugee feeding program near the Turkish-Syrian border.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2015/03/13/december-19-2014-turkeys-syrian-refugees/24819/feed/1 Daryl Grisgraber Extended Interviewhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2015/03/13/december-19-2014-daryl-grisgraber-extended-interview/24820/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2015/03/13/december-19-2014-daryl-grisgraber-extended-interview/24820/#disqus_threadFri, 13 Mar 2015 15:35:55 +0000http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/?p=24820"A couple of years ago the responses we saw from local communities hosting Syrian refugees—not the government, but just your average person—very impressive,” says Daryl Grisgraber, senior advocate at Refugees International. "But four years on that can only be kept up for so long." More →

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2015/03/13/december-19-2014-daryl-grisgraber-extended-interview/24820/feed/0 Global Food Aidhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2008/05/30/perspectives-global-food-aid/58/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2008/05/30/perspectives-global-food-aid/58/#disqus_threadFri, 30 May 2008 17:22:28 +0000http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2008/08/29/perspectives-global-food-aid/58KIM LAWTON, anchor: Now, back to the global food crisis. Joining me today is Tony Hall, the former Ohio congressman who was also the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations humanitarian agencies in Rome. Ambassador Hall, welcome. When these leaders … More →

]]>KIM LAWTON, anchor: Now, back to the global food crisis. Joining me today is Tony Hall, the former Ohio congressman who was also the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations humanitarian agencies in Rome. Ambassador Hall, welcome. When these leaders meet in the summit in Rome next week (June 3-5, 2008) what is it that they need to do? What can they do to address this crisis?

TONY HALL (Former ambassador and congressman): Well, they need to do three things. They need to outline what the problem is, and the problem is immense. Two, they need to make commitments of new resources to the hungry people in the world. And three, they need to follow up on these commitments that they’re going to make there. And the third one is the most important, because I’ve attended these conferences before and we have a tendency to forget the third one when we come back and say, “Well, we committed to this. What are we going to do?”

LAWTON: And they don’t do what they committed?

Ambassador HALL: They don’t do it. And I remember we wanted to cut hunger in half — we want to by the year 2015, and so there’s a series of steps we have to do. We’re not even coming close.

LAWTON: Well, indeed, how immense is the problem right now?

Ambassador HALL: We’ve got about 850 million people in the world today that are near starvation. What’s going on in the world today with the food prices going up is going to add another hundred million. I think you are going to start to see in the next four or five months horrendous stories, more riots. It’s a major, major problem.

Tony Hall

LAWTON: And in the U.S. we are also concerned about rising fuel prices, which has contributed to the problem, rising food prices, and people here are worried about hunger might grow here. How does the U.S. balance how much we commit to here, taking care of people here, and how much we commit to these people overseas?

Ambassador HALL: Well, hunger here is important. We’ve got about 37 million people that go to bed maybe two or three days out of every month without food. So it is important. And we commit about $60 billion domestically to those kind of programs — school lunch programs, nutrition programs, food stamps, etc. Overseas, we commit about $5 billion worth of money and food, and that’s to really address this problem of 850-950 million people. So about five percent of our resources that we allocate towards poor people goes overseas.

LAWTON: And you think we should do better?

Kim Lawton

Ambassador HALL: We can do much better. I think most people in the country believe that it’s about 50-50 — 50 percent stays here, 50 percent goes overseas. But it really is about five percent, and we can do much better.

LAWTON: And for you, what’s the primary ethical issue at stake here?

Ambassador HALL: I think the ethical issue is, as a country and as an individual, are we our brother’s keeper? And I think the answer is yes. I think that — you know, I’m a person of faith. I like to think that, and there’s over 2,500 verses in the Bible that deal with the issue of helping the poor, the sick, the hungry. And I think the way God set it up is that he set it up that we are to address this issue, and that he works through us. His Plan B — well, I don’t know what Plan B is. Plan A is the way he set it up, and that’s the way I want to go, and I think that’s the way we need to go as a country and as an individual.

LAWTON: Okay, Ambassador Tony Hall, thank you very much.

Ambassador HALL: Thank you.

LAWTON: We’ll continue this conversation online on our Web site at pbs.org.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2008/05/30/perspectives-global-food-aid/58/feed/0 Tony Hall on the Global Food Crisishttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2008/05/30/interview-tony-hall-on-the-global-food-crisis/57/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2008/05/30/interview-tony-hall-on-the-global-food-crisis/57/#disqus_threadFri, 30 May 2008 17:21:43 +0000http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2008/08/29/interview-tony-hall-on-the-global-food-crisis/57In an extended conversation, former congressman and ambassador Tony Hall suggests that nations haven’t developed the political and spiritual will to confront the alarming global food crisis because “poor people don’t vote.” He says people of faith and all voters … More →

]]>In an extended conversation, former congressman and ambassador Tony Hall suggests that nations haven’t developed the political and spiritual will to confront the alarming global food crisis because “poor people don’t vote.” He says people of faith and all voters should be a moral voice on hunger issues, and he adds that he tries to follow the advice of Mother Teresa to “do the thing that is in front of you” when he feels overwhelmed in the face of problems such as poverty and hunger.